FROM AGGRESSIVE CROHN'S TO COMPLETE REMISSION

From aggressive Crohn's to complete remission

Reviewed by Chrystie Street
March 13th, 2012

I am going to make this review short and sweet. I first heard about the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD) while researching Crohn's on my iPhone, hours after being diagnosed with the disease. I was sick and fuzzy-minded, wearing a hospital gown and outfitted with a PICC line straight to my heart. Numerous drugs were flowing into my body to combat the injury and raging infections caused by aggressive Crohn's. A few weeks later, I was reading Breaking the Vicious Cycle, purchasing a yogurt maker and starting the diet.

4 months after going 100% SCD, my blood test results came back completely normal - actually, stellar. 6 months after starting the diet, there was no sign of inflammation in my body. 8 months after starting the diet, I had a job and more energy and mental clarity than I had felt in years. My doctors couldn't explain my improvement, since I had refused to take the aggressive biologic medications that were recommended.

Keep in mind, before I started SCD I was hospitalized with such severe injuries from my body attacking itself (including a humongous hole in my small intestine) that I could have died. So, 8 months may seem like a long time, but considering how much healing my body needed to do, 8 months is not that long!

I'm not keeping my promise to make this short, so I will conclude by saying:

1) SCD is a life saver. Start by reading this book.

2) Once you learn the diet, you will find that everyone in your household will want to eat your SCD food rather than the "other stuff". SCD food is good. There are plenty of beautiful SCD recipe blogs out there. Google them!

3) The diet is NOT easy, especially if you are sick, exhausted, in pain and fuzzy-minded when you are starting. Join the "BTVC-SCD" yahoo group for support and guidance. The gals and guys on that message board will answer your questions, help you tailor the diet to your own needs, help you learn from their own experiences, and give you much-needed support when you go through reactions or setbacks. They all contribute to the message board out of the kindness of their own hearts. They want to help others experience the same improvement in symptoms that they have achieved.

5) The diet works together with conventional medicine. Not being able to go off medication does not mean that the diet isn't working. Some people need medication in combination with the diet. Some are able to go off their medication within a few years of starting the diet. Either way is OK. Medication won't prevent the diet from working!

For those of us who are relieved to have access to information which empowers us to take care of ourselves, this book is a godsend. With it I have been able to completely regain my health without the use of medications. It is a tragedy that this information is not available to everyone with digestive disorders, so that we all can make informed personal choices about how we wish to approach our treatment. People with the determination to regain their health will almost certainly benefit from learning about this diet.

Information published on this Web site is intended to support the book Breaking The Vicious Cycle by Elaine Gottschall and is for information purposes only. It is not the intention of this site
to diagnose, prescribe, or replace medical care. Your doctor or nutrition expert
should be consulted before undertaking a change of diet.